Germany confiscates money and houses worth €50 million in Russian money laundering case
German law enforcement agencies confiscated real estate and cash worth a total of 50 million euros in one of the largest money laundering cases in history.
The property seizure is related to the investigation into a money laundering the scheme, called "Laundromat" or "Russian laundry", through which $ 22 billion were withdrawn from Russia via banks in Latvia and Moldova, reports Deutsche Welle.
Munich law enforcement agencies are investigating three suspects who own 40 million euros in real estate in the federal states of Bavaria and Hessen. Citizenship, gender and age of the suspects, as well as other details of the case, have not been disclosed. Four houses were confiscated in the Bavarian cities of Nuremberg, Regensburg, Mühldorf am Inn, and Schwalbach am Taunus.
In addition, the investigators seized 6.7 million euros in two German real estate agencies and another 1.2 million euros in the account in one of Latvia’s banks.
“Russian laundry” is alleged to be the largest money laundering operation in history. This fraudulent scheme was discovered in 2014, as a result of an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).